FTW 1 - 2 Hightech (392037482)

The crowd of 24456 turning up at Ah hA Arena today were greeted with some nasty showers of rain. Vernon Whiu was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Jean-Yves Quix and Herko Baumgärtner. A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for FTW. Starters: Farnstieg - Coulon, Noblet, Supkus - Schoppitsch, Kárpáti, Smith, Lehepuu, Kray - Harmeling, Khavanov.

Hightech had chosen a strategic 4-4-2 formation. They fielded: Vilalta - Rector, Grace, Perez, Gaup - Rubin, Berglund, Ferreira, Sanders - Brown, Perucho.

FTW seemed to prefer attacking in the middle. Hightech clearly had decided to counter-attack when they could. A. Perucho stunned the crowd with a brilliant counterattack from the left, giving Hightech the goal to make it 0 - 1. FTW had a good opportunity to attack on the wing, but remembered their instructions to go for middle attacks. FTW tried to even things up by sending a long ball towards the centrally placed strikers, but the visitors' defence got the best of this rather direct style of play. Hightech earned themselves a free kick after a counterattack wasn't dealt with adequately by their opponents. B. Rubin powered the shot in for 0 - 2. 31 minutes into the game, Hightech seemed to suffer a certain amount of confusion and they fell to a solid level of organisation. D. Kray neatly controlled the ball after a short corner, and knocked it on to M. Lehepuu who had the whole net open before him, but only managed to hit the post. The home side worked hard to get through the middle and as a result, had a good chance of getting one back as K. Smith tried lifting the ball over keeper M. Vilalta. Unfortunately, the ball went just over the bar. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave A. Perucho from Hightech a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 34 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! After 44 minutes, there was a bit of a mixup on the field as Hightech found themselves out of position and their organisation level dropped to poor. The teams went for the halftime break at 0 - 2. FTW enjoyed most of the ball, as they maintained 63 percent of possession.

The Hightech players spent the break getting a rerun of the team's tactical organisation and regained a passable organisation when the game started again. FTW refused to be intimidated and, breaking through the middle, D. Kárpáti managed to slip the ball home for 1 - 2. 60 minutes in, FTW's B. Khavanov received a yellow card for going into a challenge studs first. Hightech were forced into a substitution as E. Sanders couldn't continue due to some rough treatment, forcing K. Mcwhorter to come in off the bench. FTW's L. Harmeling almost tied things up with 62 minutes played after breaking through on the right, but his shot deflected off the post. L. Harmeling was uncomfortable with the soggy pitch as he couldn't move the ball around with his usual grace. It might be a while before the fans see FTW's L. Harmeling again, after he had to leave the field in great distress at the 71 minute mark. He was replaced by F. Eguniz. The Hightech players could smell victory in the air. F. Grace wasn't in a hurry to leave the field as he was substituted for W. Tijsterman after 75 minutes. With 76 minutes played, FTW's J. Coulon found an opening in the visitors' left side defence, but his shot was handled easily by the keeper. A. Perucho wanted to play on, but the Hightech coach had other ideas, and he was replaced 89 minutes into the game by R. Maire. FTW had most of the ball, with 63 percent of possession.

The most dominating FTW player was without a doubt O. Farnstieg. On the other hand, F. Eguniz's play was disheartening. Hightech's top performer was clearly R. Brown. R. Maire turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 1 - 2.